Remnants of Remnant
by Fridaynosaur
Summary: Team RWBY face the harsher realities of being huntresses in their second year at beacon. Remnant is no fairy tale, and Ruby needs to learn she and her friends aren't invincible. Tags: White Rose, Ice Flower, Bumbleby, Bumblebee, Checkmate, Checkmating. Updated roughly 3 times a week.
1. Falls from grace are never elegant

_Updated to have this as the opener, all other chapters are moved up one._

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><p><strong><em>"I couldn't take it, couldn't stand another minute;"<em>**

I lean back in my chair. It's nearly a throne, and with the setup of the Schnee Dust Corporation's executive office, it feels almost like the sort of room you'd expect a king or queen to occupy; red carpet, white pillars, stairs to the chair, and all. I feel a massive, familiar aura's presence coming toward the room, and smirk to myself as I let my left hand rest on Myrtenaster, its point sticking into the floor and the ball of its hilt being covered by my palm. I shift in the throne and cross my legs, covered to the knee by white heeled boots with black zippers going up the back and black soles. I had ditched the outward frill of my combat skirt for a sheer white, strapless dress. Over that, I wore my old white pea coat with the black buttons left open. The bags under my eyes are one of the many signs of my trouble sleeping these days, but I don't care. I have a goal, and I won't be able to rest fully until I ensure the end of the white fang. I close my eyes and clench my fingers around Myrtenaster, my oldest, familiar, final friend.

**_"Couldn't bear another day without you in it."_**

"I can feel you out there." I call out at the grand double doors painted white and embossed with the Schnee emblem in silver, with silver laurels surrounding the frame. "Come in, I'm sure there's a lot you want to say."

**_"All of the joy that I had known for all my life"_**

"Actually…" the door swings outward and a red boot steps down, lines of heat visible shimmering around it as the door slowly reveals my former teammate. Her outfit is much closer to what I remembered than I'm sure mine was to her, only all accents that were previously tan on her had been replaced with a red that was all too familiar.

**_"Was stripped away from me the minute that you died."_**

It had been over a year since we'd seen each other, and the rumors were true. Her eyes were always red these days. I'm not certain if she's just always that angry from all that we've lived through, or if she's finally mastered her abilities and doesn't need to revert to her lilac eyes anymore. Possibly they were a sore reminder.

**_"To have you in my life was all I ever wanted,"_**

"I'm not here to talk." Yang said evenly. She doesn't appear angry at all, a strong counterpoint to the ball of fury she'd become so infamous for being in our tenure at Beacon. She takes another step forward, across the red carpet laying the path between us in the grand hall. The heat that shimmers off of her form expands outwards at least a meter in every direction, her hair glowing golden so brightly I have to avert my eyes slightly. She was always a monster, but this was unlike anything I'd ever seen from her before. I smirk slightly, more nervous than I care to let on.

**_"But now without you I'm a soul forever haunted."_**

Instead of letting her display of power go unanswered, I push my aura outward in response, my eyes glowing an icy blue only seen normally on the underside of a glacier. I'm a lot more powerful than she remembers, too. As the unbridled energy I release slides across the room, a layer of frost begins to cover the throne I remain seated on, before expanding outward and sliding down the stairs. I slowly close my eyes, and as I open them I cast my hardest glare down at her and stand, pointing Myrtenaster at the yellow berserker.

**_"Can't help but feel that I had taken you for granted;"_**

"…So be it." I say tightly, stepping forward and bringing the all-encompassing frost with me. Yang approaches me with the same deliberate pace, the only sign I was receiving from her that she was even nearly as reluctant as I was to go through with this. As we meet in the middle, our auras begin to clash for the forward edges of the spaces we occupy, creating an endless cycle of water that would evaporate only to be replaced by more from the melting ice. The subtle hiss was left as an overtone as my glacier eyes locked firmly on her crimson ones.

**_"No way in Hell that I can ever comprehend this."_**

"I can't forgive you." She says, her voice quivering slightly as she clenched her fists, Cinder Celica expanding its red form over her fists. I wonder what changes she made that were worthy of renaming it after my old enemy. "It's time this ended."

**_"I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone,"_**

I silently nod my agreement, pulling Myrtenaster back and putting my right hand forward in a defensive stance. Even after all this time, I know better than to play this any way but defensively. I still feel the need to justify my actions to her, though. "I did what I had to. You of all people should understand."

**_"I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong."_**

"I do." She says softly, the quiver returning. "But I can't forgive you." I nod again, and she nods back. She jumps forward into the air, her red eyes glowing with a blaze much like Cinder Celica, igniting the entirety of the area around her that was previously shimmering. _'This must be what hell is like… this is incomparable.'_ Everything ignites, and my aura is pushed back within a foot of me before I flare mine up in response. The ground under my feet began to crackle and icy faults grew in the marble floor as I pointed Myrtenaster up at her, firing a blast of lighting up into the hurricane of fire falling towards me.

**_"How could you leave me when you swore that you would stay?"_**

Yang fires her gauntlet to my right, pushing her left and out of the way of the bolt before firing behind herself with a continuous jet stream of fire, propelling her at speeds I'd not seen in over a year. I barely put up a glyph in time to stop it, and watch in horror as it shatters immediately from the unbridled force of Yang's punch. I don't have any time to react, and am sent flying towards the back wall of my chamber. In the air, I re-orient myself and focus on a battle plan. _'She's much faster than I had anticipated, I have to keep up.'_ I catch myself on a glyph I set behind myself, and focus on my speed. The glyph flashes gears as if part of a clock and the world around me seems to slow down. I can see distinct ashes rising from the inferno Yang had created, and the ice on the walls and floor dissolving gradually as a slightly silhouetted Yang steps in slow motion towards me, an all-consuming blaze being left in her wake.

**_"Now I'm trapped inside a nightmare every single fucking day."_**

The horrifying visage is only made worse when the glow of her burning eyes pierces through the shadow and she uses her new gauntlets' jet function to close the distance yet again. Even at my quickened speed, her onslaught is unbelievably fast. With barely enough time to react, I sidestep her punch and swipe with Myrtenaster, landing a glancing blow into the armor plating on her shoulder. _'Damn it.'_

**_"It's like a movie, but there's not a happy ending;"_**

I rotate the chamber in my blade to the Dust chamber filled with Wind element, and fire it behind me. The flames fan about as I'm flung forward and away from my opponent, re-orienting myself towards her, and putting several glyphs between us as I charge up another lightning blast. When Yang smashes the final one, I unleash a third-level lightning attack on her, tensing her entire body and causing her to spasm uncontrollably as she falls to the floor.

**_"Every scene fades black, and there's no pretending."_**

As I jump up to lunge my blade into her, her eyes flash back open, the pupils now shrunk to the size of pinpoints, turning her eyes to pure red discs of rage. She unleashes a war scream and a pulse of her fiery aura knocks me back away from her. I backflip to properly orient myself towards her again, and land gracefully, kneeling on one knee, Myrtenaster at my side.

**_"This little fairy tale doesn't seem to end well,"_**

_'She's so impossibly strong, Weiss. Be smart.' _I send a wind augmented slash into the inferno, fanning it back, Yang once again walking towards me out of the fire in slow motion. She raised her fists to chest level and began firing at me rapidly enough that if I hadn't known better I'd have assumed she were using an automatic weapon. I summoned my semblance slightly too late, the glyph absorbing the rest of the shots as I raise my hand to my grazed cheek. _'Another scar on the left side of my face… if I survive this I'm going to be very upset about that' _

**_"There's no knight in shining armor who will wake me from the spell."_**

I look up to see the rounds Yang is firing are now exploding, and my glyph begins to crack. I take a page from another former teammate's book, and drop a fire element crystal from the cylinder of Myrtenaster. As my glyph shatters, I send a small jolt of lightning at the fire crystal and jump backwards. Behind the smoke, I make a series of glyphs I use to bring myself up to a small decorative balcony. Without giving her any egress with which to continue her assault, I send an icy blast across the entire floor and fire another third-level lightning blast through the haze, fragmenting the ice upwards in a razor sharp blender of mirror blades that echo images of the hall as the shattering noise resonates through the very foundation of the executive room. As they raise upwards, I send out several air element dust blasts, creating a tornado of piercing ice that sweeps up every loose object in the room while I look on from above.

**_"I know you didn't plan this;"_**

Knocked into the air, Yang's body receives several gashes as it tumbles, momentarily helpless in the wave of icy shards. She pulls herself into the fetal position to minimize the damage being done, and lets out a fierce roar that reverberates against the marble walls as she unfurls herself, which pushes back all of the glassy shards swirling about her and melts them away. Catching herself with the jets on Cinder Celica, the fierce determination in her eyes pierces through my very essence as she flies towards the balcony on which I stand.

**_"You tried to do what's right."_**

As her fist smashes into the balcony, shattering it from beneath me, I jump upwards. Using a series of glyphs to bring myself out to the middle of the air in the center of the hall, I discharge a volley of fire Dust detonations into her back. This only serves to infuriate her further, as she turns and launches herself at me with a short surge from her gauntlets before turning them toward me and firing a missile from each arm.

**_"But in the middle of this madness,"_**

My eyes widen for a second before I react instinctively, blasting the missiles with enough frost that they diffuse and fall to the floor below. During my distraction, however, Yang takes the opportunity to knock me to the floor below by interlacing her fingers and smashing me downwards with the sides of her hands in a hammer-like motion. She leaves me no room to breathe, firing her jets downward to pursue me into the floor with a devastating kick to my ribs.

**_"I'm the one you left to win this fight."_**

_'I'm not going to be beaten like this!' _I blast out my aura with all my strength. The resulting icy wave puts out all of the fires that Yang had started throughout our fight and she falls backwards into a pillar, cracking it before falling to a kneel. I stand up and walk out of the crater, and the air around me begins to mist with condensation, which immediately begins forming snow around me. More in my element, I rush Yang with a downward swing of Myrtenaster. Yang reciprocates by punching her knuckles into each other with my beloved sword between them, with such force that it shatters all three weapons.

**_"Red like roses"_**

We both look on with astonishment for a moment, before I jump back to the edge of the crater. Furious, I use my semblance to summon eight icy blades that begin hovering in front of me. I lock eyes with Yang, who kicks off of the pillar and into the first blade I send at her, punching and shattering it with her bare hand. Her knuckles bloodied, she flares up once more and begins slowly melting my blades as she continues smashing through them with her bare hands. As she reaches me, she swings an impossibly strong punch at my face. I step back and attempt to summon a glyph to defend it, and to both of our surprise I summon a very small black glyph, barely large enough to stop her fist.

**_"Fills my head with dreams and finds me"_**

Her right hand shattered against the glyph, she let out an agonizing cry and caressed it for a second. I moved to try and change the momentum in my favor, but as I went to inhale I coughed up blood onto my chin and dress. Wincing at the pain my body was suddenly so inclined to make me aware of, it became clear to me I must have had a lung punctured when Yang kicked me in the ribs earlier.

**_"Always closer"_**

I fall to my knees, holding my chest, and Yang walks up to me and kicks me over, favoring her right hand by holding it close to her chest. She kneels beside me, looming over my and looking me in the face. With her left hand, she begins punching my head repeatedly and shouting something indecipherable to me over the sound of the ringing in my ears that was getting ever louder as the darkness around the edges of my vision grows out, reaching ever further into my field of view.

**_"To the emptiness and sadness"_**

I close my eyes and my mind wanders out, memories of my first few days at Beacon flooding my mind now of all times. It's funny, I don't think I ever told Ruby she was the first person I met at Beacon. Poor first impressions aside, I wouldn't change a bit of that first year for anything. Maybe I'm ready for this. I don't have to fight this endless war anymore. I don't have to be the damn heiress anymore. Maybe it's time to finally get the rest I need so badly. I open my eyes back and see Yang with her arm pulled back for what I'm certain will be the final blow, tears in her lilac eyes. I close mine, ready to embrace the blackness.

**_"That has come to take the place of you."_**

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><p><em>This is a toss forward, figured I should catch your eye with where this is headed before the prologue.<br>_


	2. Prologue: Ends and Beginnings

_18 months prior...  
><em>

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><p>Prologue:<p>

Ruby, Yang, Blake, and I had decided to spend the last day of our summer taking a zeppelin tour of the ruins of an ancient kingdom to the south of Vale, whose name had apparently been lost to time. Naturally, I was the one to fund most of this trip. Being an heiress had its perks, despite all the shortcomings and responsibilities. Ruby and Yang were middle class at best, and I'm still not sure Blake isn't a vagabond, all things considered, so I offered my lien to celebrate what we had dubbed our "funeral for summer".

I had pondered setting up an itinerary for today's events, coordinating the time of the zeppelin trip with an operatic matinee, but I decided against it when I considered my teammates' lack of class in such matters and their propensity to ignore well thought out plans in place of spontaneity. I remember sighing to myself and admitting that it could be nice to just see where the day took us.

I looked out on the horizon, the crimson envelope of the zeppelin obscuring the sky above, but the midmorning sun managed to peek just past it and cast a harsh glare, preventing us from looking out for the most part. Instead, I focused my attention on the ruins and the Grimm that were constantly scouring them as if they were searching for something. My mind ran with this for a moment, and I mumbled to myself,

"I wonder what they'd be looking for…"

"Maybe they lost you at birth, and haven't given up hope?" Yang interjected with a chuckle. Naturally, I shot her a glare that could level a nevermore, and her smile slowly faded.

"Weiss so serious?" she said, an evil grin replacing her mirthful one from before. "Wanna know how I got these scaaaars?" She made some hand gestures and Ruby facepalmed.

"If I'm not, which one of you would ever get anything done?" I replied indignantly, ignoring whatever she was referencing and sweeping my glare across the whole of my teammates. Ruby cast her eyes downward and Yang began her transition to her other preset mood, rage. Blake, as usual, was sitting and reading a book. '_what a waste of the zeppelin tour…'_. She looked up and put her hand on Yang's forearm, and this seemed to calm Yang down for now.

Blake locked eyes with me sternly. She had this way about her, of making me feel self-conscious for doing what feels natural and taking charge. I had to break the stare, and with a sweep of my hand said,

"So, how about this view?"

I looked back over my shoulder, attempting to grin enthusiastically and rolling my eyes clear over the moon when I saw Blake back in her book and Yang holding a panicking Ruby from behind and giving her several playful punches on the head. I couldn't help but smile a little at the clear display of sibling affection, but the smile didn't last long as my thoughts turned to my sister.

Shaking my head to dispel that train of thought, I made a point to enjoy the last bit of the tour.

On the way off the dock and back towards the market district of Vale, the team was engaged in a debate about the most effective ways to handle each of the many varieties of Grimm we had encountered our first year as Huntresses in training.

"As far as Ursa go, I find getting behind them to be the most effective way to bring them down." Blake stated flatly, her bow waving with her ebony hair in the light breeze, resisting only in the shape of the cat ears she had hidden beneath.

"I'm more about taking them down from a distance, if at all possible…" Ruby mumbled. '_Why is she being so quiet?' _I remember wondering why she wasn't more outspoken more often than I'd like to admit.

"You would say that, you camper!" Yang exclaimed. "I'd just punch the stupid thing to death, of course." Yang rolled her shoulder and elbow backwards, flexing and showing off her muscles. I always found them unseemly, but she sure was proud of them. "What about you, Ice queen?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get a word in…

"ICE CREAM?!" Ruby interrupted. "WEISS, ARE WE GETTING ICE CREAM?" she blasted, using her semblance to practically teleport herself into me and tackling me to the ground. I should have been furious, the white of my combat skirt falling in the sidewalk with who knows what on it, but instead I only felt incredulous. _'How can someone love sweets so much?'_ With a sigh, I concede to her begging silver eyes.

"Fine, we can get ice cream. Just please, get off of me."

Sudden shock crossed Ruby's face as she realized the dangerous situation she'd pushed herself (and me) into. As quickly as she had knocked me over, she was pulling me up, brushing me off, and apologizing profusely.

"You dolt." I cast at her, only partially as an insult.

As yang opened the door to our dorm, Blake, Ruby, and I walked in and we all took places on our respective beds.

"whoooooomfff I feel like I'm gonna diiiiiiie!" Ruby whined loudly, causing Blake and I to roll our eyes.

"I told you not to eat a whole gallon of ice cream, Rubes. I swear you're gonna get so fat when you're older." Yang tossed at her playfully.

"Joke's on you, Yang, I'm not gonna get older!" She shot back, with enough teasing determination that we couldn't all help but laugh, before Ruby curled back over on her bunk and began making the tiniest whimpers.

"Blake, can you hit the lights?" Yang asked, after tugging off her boots and tossing them wantonly across the room. Ugh, she's so raunchy.

"Why do you always ask me to do it? Why not Weiss?" Blake questioned, apparently genuinely curious, as she'd already gotten up and began walking towards our light switch.

"You're a kitty, and everyone knows cats can see in the dark~" She teased melodically, leaning up and flashing her that stupid, wide grin she always has when she thinks she's being clever. Never mind that it actually was rather clever…

"And she's kind of a bitch. No offense, frosty."

_'Oh, offense taken, Goldilocks.'_, I remember thinking. I wasn't afraid of her, but I was ready to rest. We had an early day ahead of us, and I wanted to impress our professors on my first day back.

My attention wandered back to Ruby's whimpers when Blake hit the lights. She didn't sound as in pain now, as much as it seemed she was lamenting the end of our holiday and the beginning of our second year at Beacon Academy.

Hearing her like this made me a little bit sad, but I couldn't help doting on her. That much absurdity shouldn't exist in one person, let alone one so clearly talented and intelligent. A bit childish, sure, but with time I've come to appreciate that she's mature enough to keep up with the rest of team RWBY for the most part. That's no small feat, considering how much older we all act. Even Yang, who I so thoroughly disapprove of, behaved in an adult manner as long as her temper wasn't flared. It's odd that I'm even thinking of Yang in this way. I suppose our camaraderie as a team really had grown that first year. I fell asleep to the faintest of snores coming from the bunk above me, and dreamed of rose petals.

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><p><em>Thanks for the read. I realize this chapter is a bit slow, but I'm going to be building up to intensity as we go. Have to set a lot of pieces in motion to get to where we were last chapter. So much brings us there.<br>_

_If anyone has any criticisms, please let me know.  
><em>


	3. Prologue: Misty Morning Run

_Thank you for the read, and I hope you enjoy. I'm doing a fair bit of world building, getting used to writing the characters, and overall just approaching this at a pace I feel will make more of an impact when the arc proper kicks in._

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><p>I opened my eyes, looking around our dorm in the dark. As usual, I was up before the sun was, and after a long stretch I hopped down from above Blake's bunk. I walked over to the dresser, pulling out a white undershirt and black boyshorts, with the words "DATA ASSESSMENT" running across the behind of them. I always found these amusing, because they never made sense until you saw them in the dark. The first three letters of each word illuminated themselves in the absence of light. I chuckle to myself a little, grab some goldenrod running shorts to cover my smarmy undies, and silently step out of the room. Not before casting a glance at our resident faunus, of course. She was still pretending to be asleep, but I definitely heard her stop breathing while I was switching underwear. The sneaky girl. I made a point to do some pre-run stretches, leaning down and pulling my toes. I listened as her breathing stopped again, smirking, and counted to five before releasing. Next, I crossed my arms over my body, pulling on the foot opposite my shoulder, holding for five seconds each. Blake returned to breathing slowly when I moved to my arm and torso exercises, and I smiled and silently unlatched the door and headed outside.<p>

On my jog across the beacon campus through the crisp morning air, I let my mind wander a bit while the morning misted scenery passed me by, fading in and out of my view like in that game that used to scare Ruby so much when I played it in front of her as children. Eventually my mind landed on the usual subject that'd been clouding my judgment that whole month. 'Those cat ears of Blake's…', I thought longingly. I had always been fond of Belladonna's personality, and not being the type to judge someone on their heritage, when I first learned of her cat ears, it wasn't a big deal to me. I thought they were cute and nothing more of it.

I pushed myself to run harder, watching my breath in the cold, and tried to dismiss her from my mind. It wasn't fair to my team to be under par because of some feelings I was sure weren't reciprocated, she didn't seem the type to be interested in women. I wasn't even sure I was into them anymore. I had a phase where I was into girls for a while, but this wasn't that. That was me being experimental, giving it a chance before dismissing it as something not to be ashamed of, but also not something I was entirely interested in. This felt different somehow. I wasn't lusting after her, or any of the usual Yang-isms I had when it came to my usual relationships. I just found myself wishing she were around, an emotional pull of sorts. This was actually odd to me, despite outward appearances. Sure, I had a short fuse, but I wasn't actually a very emotional person. Never let myself get attached, really. Aside from a few close friends and family, most of the people in my life were rather transient.

Turning in to the clearing where Beacon's dormant fountain sat, I power jogged up to one of the benches and stood one leg up onto the bench at a time, stretching the freshly built tension out of my muscles.

"Hey, Yang!", I hear a familiar voice yell. "Out for your morning run?" I turned my head towards Jaune and smiled softly.

"Hey, Jaune!~" I sang enthusiastically. My thoughts of the Faunus girl I'd been taking a liking to had me in a rather good mood. I made a note to test the waters flirting with her later. "What has you out in the morning mist?"

"Nora's snoring woke me up, and I decided to take a walk. Introspective time, you know?" He grinned and scratched the back of his head, in that Jaune way. Kid had come a long way since our first exercise in the emerald forest. Pyrrha kept giving him lessons, and he was capable of standing his own in most fights anymore. I recalled the first time he knocked Cardin on his ass._ 'that was hilarious.'_

"Hey, Jaune… you want to spar with me? I wanna see how much better you got over the summer." I gesture for him to come along, sweeping my hand towards the arena and looking back at him over my shoulder.

"Well, I… I'm no match for you, still, Yang." He says sheepishly. Of course, I knew that. That wasn't the point. "And neither of us have our weapons or equipment…" His voice trailed off. He did have a fair point, though.

"Alright, then meet me there in half an hour." I say commandingly. Jaune winced a little, but sighed and nodded in defeat. 'Good. Now I can find out if the rumors are true…'

I invited Ruby, Weiss, and Blake along to watch the fight. Naturally, the winter bitch turned me down nearly immediately. 'Sometimes I question whether or not I consider her a friend...' I thought to myself. Ruby wanted to tag along, of course, and surprisingly Blake decided to come along as well, instead of spending all her time buried in some "fan fiction", as she called it, of Ninjas of love.

Apparently, people would go onto the ScrollNet and write their own stories of established characters from popular shows and games. Sounded like a bunch of self-indulgent bullshit to me. Pairing your favorite characters off, making the ones you dislike have bad things happen to them. How very lame.

My mind jumps back to the matter at hand, when I see Jaune surprisingly brought friends as well. Pyrrha had shown up, of course, as his mentor and very obvious secret admirer. More surprisingly, Nora and Ren weren't there. Ever since they became a couple, it was been hard for anyone to bring them anywhere. Nora was always dragging Ren to different events, and stores, and restaurants. Poor guy.

Cardin, as usual, was tagging along. Ever since Jaune embarrassed him in front of his team and most of the school, Jaune has ironically been the only person to show much kindness towards him. Interesting what time and a bit of Pyrrha's training can do to your relationship with the school bully.  
>Jaune was clad in his typical light armor, with his heirloom sword sheathed in his collapsible shield at his left hip. To be preparing for a bout with me, he actually seems rather calm as he talks with Pyrrha on the bleachers about what looks to be his plan of attack from their gestures. 'Good; planning was always one of your strong suits. Yang's gonna push you to your limits, kid.'<br>I hopped up into the raised ring that made up the primary arena, my Ember Celica on each arm expanding as I lightly bumped my fists together. Jaune noticed this from across the room, much more perceptive than he once was, and broke off his conversation with Pyrrha, walking down the bleachers toward me with a look of determination that made me root for the kid even more. Pyrrah looked down after him, clear love and concern in her eyes. How he hadn't caught on by then was beyond all of us at Beacon, but it's not anyone's place to force that into happening. Anyway, Pyrrah had no reason to be so concerned. This whole thing wasn't to embarrass or hurt him, the other students in the gym would surely see this. Hopefully, if it went well, Jaune would forever put the insults "Vomit Boy" and "Cross Dresser" behind him.  
>Jaune stepped up onto the ring, looking it over. It was rather large, to be honest. About the size of a basketball court's length in every direction. This was optimal, because Jaune was going to need to keep his distance from me if he wanted to last more than a few seconds '…unless the rumors are true."<br>Ruby walked up between us, the impromptu referee for the match. She put her right arm up directly between us, making eye contact with us each as she said,  
>"Rules are as follows! Fight will continue until one of you forfeits, or is knocked unconscious. Anything goes, please don't kill each other…" her voice trailed off on a sad note for a second, before perking back up. "Aaaaaaaand…" she yelled, ending all the conversations going on around as they turned their attention to the recreational match about to begin. "GO!"<br>Ruby flashed out from between us, leaving rose petals falling that lightly obscured our views of each other.

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><p><em>Please, let me know what you think so far. I realize I'm still just setting up the world and no major content has really begun, but if you feel my style is off or you feel the tone is odd, please let me know.<br>_


	4. Prologue: Checkmate

_Chapter 3 has been my longest so far, and yet I still want to write much longer ones. I'm working towards 3000 words per two days, but it's not always so easy. _

_Anyway, I hope you guys like it, and please give me any constructive criticisms on my writing, pacing, word usage... anything you notice that you feel could be worked at._

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><p>I remember waking to the sound of Ruby's soft snoring, a slight crick in my back from apparently sleeping off of my pillows. My ice blue silk nightgown had white frills above the bust, and was very ruffled from what was apparently a night full of tossing and turning. I wondered what exactly it was I had dreamed about, or why I'd have been so restless in my sleep.<br>With a solid stretch, I glanced across the room and saw Blake sitting up in her bed, clearly not ready for the first day of classes. Unsurprisingly, Yang had already left for her morning jog. How she managed to always wake first, even after nights of partying and doing Ozpin knows what, was well beyond my comprehension.

I slid off my mattress, my feet making nary a sound while I walked across the room to grab an outfit for the day. I noticed Belladonna's ear twitch under her bow as I walked past, despite my silence. There's not much I could do to help affecting her sleep a little, unfortunately. Her hearing was, after all, almost twice as good as the rest of ours.

Pulling out a slightly atypical ensemble for myself, I chose a white peacoat with black plaid lines to wear over a white skirt, some semi-transparent black leggings and white knee high boots with three inch heels. I always made a point to wear heels, to make it less apparent that I was the shortest member of team RWBY, which normally wouldn't be upsetting, but our exuberant leader happened to be two years my junior and still managed to outgrow me. I sighed, trying not to dwell on things I couldn't help, and nodded to myself. At least I could be proud of my outfit coordination.

I walked on the balls of my feet to the restroom, not wishing to disturb the two remaining teammates in their beds. Blake rolled over, but remained asleep, and Ruby's snores didn't even falter. Normally, I find snoring to be detestable, but hers were so small and unobtrusive. It was almost cute. I wasn't sure why I was thinking this, standing outside the restroom with my hand on the partially opened door, staring back at her bunk. I blinked twice, rolled my eyes to myself at my absurdity, and walked into the restroom to begin my morning hygeine ritual.

I brush my teeth with my favorite name brand spearmint toothpaste, careful not to miss any details so as to keep my teeth as white as my namesake. I prefer the taste of cinnamon over it, honestly, but I don't like the breath it leaves me with.

After thoroughly inspecting my mouth for anything I may have missed, I slipped the spaghetti straps on my nightgown gently down over my shoulders and let it fall in a pale circle around me on the floor. Despite all the ice queen comments, I actually enjoy my showers at a reasonably warm temperature. I set the bath to run, and once it felt warm enough for me I stepped into the shower and let the lukewarm water pass over me, relieving the tension in my back and neck from my poor sleep. I lathered up my hair, and after rinsing it out I replaced the shampoo with conditioner that I left in while I reached for my scrunchie and began covering myself in suds and humming a song that was beginning to get stuck in my head.

"Tell me something... tell me who's the loneliest of all..."  
>A loud slam and Ruby crying out came from the main part of the dorm, and my reflexes kicked in before I had much time to assess the situation. Grabbing a towel to cover myself, I burst into the dorm and glanced around for a would-be attacker. Ruby looked up at me, blushing deeply.<p>

"I-I fell..." She murmured sheepishly, scratching the back of her head and closing her eyes in an embarrassed smile.

"You dunce!" I exclaim, "You really had me worried! With Cinder and Adam and who knows who else wanting us hurt, I can't have you crying wolf!" I point at her accusingly. Her blush only got worse, and she cast her eyes down in what I assumed to be shame.

"Weiss... you're..." she pointed at the hand I had been waving about in my accusations. My eyes slowly found their way down my arm, and in my hand was my towel. It was my turn to blush, and as if I had borrowed Ruby's semblance, I was back in the restroom within the blink of an eye.  
>"I'm so sorry!" Ruby called in after me, clearly confused and embarrassed. "Please don't hate me!"<p>

"Just go away, Ruby! I... This... This never happened, got it?!" I got back in the shower and rinsed myself, turning the water all the way cold to distract myself from the debacle that had just transpired.

When I got out, I quickly towel dried my hair and put it in its off center ponytail I was so fond of. Afterwards, I lightly put on some lip gloss and a thin band of black eyeliner to help accentuate the separation between my eyes and my pale skin. With a small sigh, I stepped back out into the room.  
>Ruby was still sitting around on her bed. She had showered the night before, and only wanted to use the restroom to fix her hair. Before she did so, she walked up to me. "I'm so so sorry Weiss! I don't know what happened! I was dreaming of being launched by you in our fight... and and and It wasn't that bad, I mean, you're..." her voice trailed off while I recalled the fight we had around this time last year in the emerald forest. For some reason she was blushing, something in that last sentence I had stopped paying attention to.<p>

"Did anyone else see..?" I asked, silently praying to any deity that would hear my plea.

"N-no, Weiss... Blake is in the library and Yang is still on her run."

I flushed with intense relief and felt muscles I was previously unaware were tense relax. Ruby wouldn't pester me about my incident nearly as much as my older two teammates. Not that I wasn't mortified, but I was rationalizing in my head to keep from going into full blown tragedy mode.

"I'm going to head to the library as well, Ruby.", I said, wanting to get away from the awkwardness that was building from Ruby being even more worked up than I was over that little overprotective incident.  
>"Okay, I'll just be here..." Her voice trailed off in a pout as I walked out of the room and firmly shut the door.<p>

I used my walk to the library to calm myself down. I was trying to work at my anger issues, even if nobody would believe me about it. Just because I never acknowledged my problems outwardly didn't mean I wasn't working at improving myself inwardly. I turned the final hall corner and found the elm double doors with a slightly faded bronze placard that read "LIBRARY" in large letters, and slightly smaller underneath were the words "NO FOOD OR DRINK ALLOWED". With a shrug, I stepped inside.

The room was mostly full of students studying various subjects for their classes, but in the corner I saw Blake playing Ren in a game of chess. I remember thinking that was odd, and wondering where Nora was. I shook my head and thought about how awful Nora would be in a library setting if she weren't asleep, and decided it was best to not bother myself with it too much, instead opting to approach their game and watch.

I sat down perpendicular to the two silent players, and gauged their expressions. As usual, Blake had a silent calm about her. Ren, on the other hand, looked very intense. I found out why shortly after, as Blake moved a pawn forward, revealing a path for both a bishop and a rook to take towards Ren's king and the only open adjacent space.

"Checkmate." She said calmly, crossing her arms and looking at me. Ren slumped over in defeat, silently murmuring,

"How do you always beat me so easily?..."

Blake kept her arms crossed and shrugged, not appearing to want to explain. This sparked something in me, as I had overheard in the past several people doubting me being the smartest member of team RWBY, in favor of her.

"Blake Belladonna!" I quietly exclaimed, standing and pointing a finger at her. "I challenge you to a match of chess!"

She nodded in agreement, and Ren got up and sauntered off into the depths of the towering shelves of books, presumable to bury his shame in a novel. Blake reset the pieces, as I watched patiently.

"Which color would you prefer to be, Weiss?" she asked me evenly. I was always a rather aggressive player when it came to chess, so I grabbed the white queen, set it in place, and turned the board so it would be nearest to me.

Several turns in, I had her pinned in a corner. Her king had nowhere to go and all her power pieces were wrapped up protecting each other or the king from my overwhelming onslaught. I looked up at her with an evil grin. "Your move, Belladonna."

She blinked slowly, pulling a pawn up from its starting point, and placing it two spaces forward. This blocked my next move, which would have put her in checkmate. '_How could she have known?_ ' I glared at her wrathfully. I pulled up a rook and took her undefended pawn, planning on going behind her row of pawns next turn and force an early checkmate. As I passed the turn to her again, she moved a bishop into same column my rook would have previously kept it out of, and leaned back in her chair. Once more, she folded her arms and smirked.

"Checkmate", she said flatly. I looked down across my board, and saw that my pieces had lined up perfectly; leaving my king in a pocket he was unable to escape from the diagonal assault in. I raised my hands to each side of my head and rested my elbows on the table.

"How could this happen?!" I looked down into the board, abysmally lamenting my lack of chess prowess. At this angle, I saw Ruby and Yang's boots come to a stop to my left. I looked up to see the sisters sizing us up.

"Hey, you two! I just challenged Jaune to a match in the arena! Want to come watch?" Yang practically shouted, irritating everyone in the library and forcing Blake, Ruby, and I to shush her. "Oh… my bad." She said in a much more inside appropriate voice. I was still too riled up from this morning's series of failings on my part. First, with Ruby. Now, with Blake. I didn't want to embarrass myself yet again in front of my final teammate, so I decided to stick to the library for now and see how I fared against Ren.

"Why would I want to watch you bully Vomit Boy, Yang? That's hardly even a fight, you brute." I cast a cold glare at her and stood up abruptly. Blake shrugged and got up, and started walking out with them as I wandered into the labyrinth that Beacon Academy had amassed and dubbed its "Library".

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><p><em>Alright, some action will definitely be in the next chapter! I'm excited for that, and I hope it will push me to write a nice, fat chapter for you guys.<em>


	5. Prologue: reSemblance

_Hey everyone. Here's a fight I think you guys will dig, I enjoyed envisioning this going down. Hope you like how much I've had Jaune grow as a fighter. I also hope you guys don't hate his semblance. _

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><p>As Ruby's petals fell, Jaune lunged forward with the bottom of his sheathe, expanding it into a shield and drawing his sword all in one motion. Knowing the lunge would go to my right at the end of his reach, I sidestepped left and prepared to step in with a low right jab. Before I could even plant my feet firmly, he glanced my direction with a smirk and continued the backwards momentum from unsheathing his sword, swinging it exactly where he had anticipated I'd move.<p>

The turbulence from our movements still had the petals fluttering about, a trail of them dancing behind Jaune's blade as it came within inches of my face. Everything seemed to slow down as I leaned backwards until my knees were nearly at a right angle to duck under his blow, and petals that had come to rest beneath me erupted everywhere as I shot my Ember Celica downward behind me to bounce myself back up and into the fight.

As I realigned myself towards my highly underestimated opponent, I tucked my arms in and moved forward to take advantage of his being off balance from his last attack. I tensed my torso and prepared my left arm for a hook, only to have my head met with the side of Jaune's shield.  
>'Holy hell! What did Pyrrha do to push Jaune this far this quickly?!' I thought as I recoiled from the blow to my head. I put my arm out and rolled into a cartwheel, firing Ember Celica in a few glancing shots at him as I rolled onto my feet and into a wider, more defensive stance than before.<p>

I rolled my neck, cracking it and grinning at the unexpected and exciting challenge as the last of the petals settled onto the mat beneath us. I put my arms up, covering my face, and began slowly circling around Jaune to his left. Ultimately, his shield side was still my better bet. I shuffled across the floor, the red debris sliding against my boot. Jaune and I were sizing each other up, and I was slowing my breathing. At the end of an inhale, I shouted, "Bring it ooooooon!" and unleashed a flurry of shots from my gauntlets, semicircling around my target before I jumped into the smoke I had caused to surround Jaune, and swung my right fist downward into the cloud. My attack only managed to hit the ground, though, sending rose petals adrift once more as the smoke cleared out.  
>Expecting it this time, I ducked under a shield blow from behind that would've certainly knocked me senseless, and while crouched, I fired my gauntlets forward and jumped backwards into Jaune. My shoulder caught him in the chest, and I tucked my arm up and around his head and back flipped over him, pulling him into the air with my momentum and landing on my feet, and setting my other arm onto his thigh as he landed on my shoulders. He struggled hopelessly to get free, and I fired Ember Celica upwards while jumping backwards, slamming his body into the ground and doing a backwards roll to get on my feet again.<p>

Jaune slowly pulled himself up; catching the wind I knocked out of him. I knew I was going to have to push him harder to learn what I wanted to, so I immediately rushed him again. Firing my gauntlets and yelling a fierce battle cry, I activated my semblance and jumped in the air to hit him with a downward punch.

At this, Jaune moved his shield up to block, and I noticed something about his eyes. They were red. _'What the fuck?' _I hesitated in my punch, and his aura flared up around him in a fireball of heat and energy as he took the opportunity I presented and knocked me clear to the edge of the arena with a hook from his shield arm. _'Holy shit that hurts'_ I got up, my aura flaring ever brighter as my rage grew. In a flash, I lunged forward and returned the favor, hitting Jaune clear into the other end of the arena. The rose petals lifted once more from the gust of his body flying past, and he landed into the wall with such force that it moaned in disagreement with the abuse it was receiving and cracked in a spider web pattern.

Jaune made one of his silly faces as he slid cartoonishly down the wall, but as he landed he caught himself and came to a kneeling stance. He looked up at me, with a fierce determination I'd not seen in him before, and his aura blasted out even more powerfully. _'What in the hell is going on with him?'_ He tensed his body up for a lunge, and I braced myself to counter his blow by putting one foot behind the other and resuming my defensive stance. As the tension in his legs and torso released, he dashed at a speed I'd only ever seen one other person move, and the rose petals were once more pulled into the slipstream of his body in motion. _'Wait, fuck! Those aren't from before, he's making his own. Could his semblance be…?'_ My thoughts trailed off as a punch as strong as any of my own met my jaw and sent me flying toward the ceiling. I caught myself in time to jump down off of it, crushing the integrity of the roof with the force of the punch and my jump back down.

I fired Ember Celica once to increase my downward movement before rearing up for my most powerful right cross. I was ending this, done with all the insanity I'd invited in forcing Jaune to show his semblance. As my cross landed, he disappeared. _'Blake… Me… Ruby… I think I've got it' _I turned and fired behind me, and immediately sent a right hook into the smoke.

Jaune's face made a resounding crack as I sent him flying once more into the wall, the petals doing their now familiar dance behind him. As he fell, he caught himself once more, and moved to stand back up. Instead, he dropped his sword and fell to a knee. "I'm still not strong enough…" He said to himself and collapsed.

"Aaaaaaand match!...?" Ruby exclaimed, with a hint of a question layered in at Jaune's new power and whether or not he'd be making another move. She cocked an eyebrow as I walked over to him and dragged his limp form over to the seating where Pyrrha had been spectating.

"Holy shit, he's gotten tough, Pyrrha. What did you do to him?" I asked, rolling my shoulder in its joint to get it to pop back into place. That last hit was a bit of a strain, and my body was making its disapproval very known. After the familiar pop resonated through my arm, I let it rest at my side and began stretching my back.

"I've promised not to tell," Pyrrha smiled warmly and closed her eyes. "but he has definitely earned every bit of it. He's very talented, but he's struggled with his semblance…" Her voice trailed off and she looked at his unconscious body. He coughed a bit and his eyes opened to Pyrrha's proud gaze. "You've done very well, Jaune."

"You say that, but I still didn't win…" Jaune's voice trailed off and he broke her gaze, sitting up and hunching over. "I trained and trained, months of work…" He seemed genuinely upset. I didn't mean to deal a blow to his pride; I thought he had done awesomely. I figured it best to let Pyrrha cheer him up.

"You did fine, Jaune. Yang is possibly the best fighter in our year. You almost had her at several points." Pyrrha encouraged.

"Yeah, what the hell was all that with your semblance? You can copy other semblances?" I asked, scratching the back of my head.

"Only the semblance I've interacted with most recently, as far as I can tell.", He smiled sadly and pointed at the rose petals on the ground. "When Ruby called the match, I had a hunch and followed it. Turns out even if I touch something left behind by a semblance, like Ruby's rose petals, I can use that. It also works against me, though. I can't ever be as good as someone at their own semblance, and can end up fighting using one I'm entirely unfamiliar with on accident..." His voice trailed off and he appeared lost in thought.

"That's still super cool, Jaune." I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled, and he grinned back up at me and nodded. I looked over to Pyrrha and smiled at the way she was always doting on him. It truly spoke to his cluelessness that he still hadn't gathered that she wanted to be with him romantically.

I shrugged it off and started walking back down to my incredulous teammates. Ruby jumped up for a high five, and I acknowledged it enthusiastically. "What was all that about?" She asked, wiggling with her hands in front of her face, her skirt swirling as her curious eyes peeked over her knuckles.

"Apparently Jaune has a rather… unique semblance." I shrugged and casually looked over my shoulder at Jaune and Pyrrha again, before sweeping my gaze to Blake. She wasn't showing it outwardly, but I was sure she was impressed. We all were.

I couldn't help but let my eyes linger on Blake a little bit; casting my eyes up and down her while she was looking over at Jaune, and eventually letting them rest on her bow. _'I wonder if she likes scratches behind them?' _

The sound of her clearing her throat knocked me back into reality, and I saw her with a stern look of disapproval and crossed arms. She didn't always catch me, but I didn't mind when she did. I knew she was into me, at least a little. I smirked and winked at her and she rolled her eyes and turned on her heel to walk out of the arena. I was sure she intended for me to see the sway in her hips, and a glance cast back at me to catch my eye proved my hunch.

_'Blake, the things I would do to you.'_

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><p><em>So, that's that. I'm wanting to flash somewhere in the next chapter. Should it be forward or backwards? Would you guys like to have a hint at what's in store? Or would you rather have a glimpse of what brought the characters here? I already have storyboards for both set up. It's all the details and the "getting there" I struggle with. As always, a review or nine would be awesome so I can know what to focus on improving.<br>_


	6. Prologue: First Class

_A bit of a breather. I'm learning the more fun chapters for you guys to read are also the more fun ones for me to write... unfortunately there's so much I need to set in motion before I can get to the meat of it. It will definitely be worth it though! The storyboard I have set up for the past timeline as well as the main arc are both very awesome. I'll be sure to do a flashback within the next three or so chapters._

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><p>After easily defeating Ren in our chess match, my bruised ego sighed a breath of relief. I wasn't incompetent; Blake clearly just had had more of a chance to warm up. I glanced up at the clock to check the time after our match, and figured that the little exhibition match Yang was using to express her superiority was probably wrapped up by now. I calmly stepped out of the library and towards the arena to check up on my teammates, and ensure that everyone was prepared for our classes to begin at 9:30am. As I came around the corner and through a side entrance to the arena, I witnessed something I never thought I'd see. Jaune rushed Yang with a speed akin to Ruby's, and followed it up with a punch that actually sent Yang flying into the ceiling. I shook my head incredulously, and approached Ruby and Blake to make sure they were going to be on time to class.<br>"Yes, Weiss. Shhhhh I'm watching!" Ruby shushed me and put her finger to her lips, never breaking contact with the match. I glanced over to see Yang had gone into some smoke, and shrugged.  
>"Okay, just be there!" I said scoldingly, knowing if the match dragged on too much longer all of my teammates would be truant to their first class of the year, which I refused to let be the tone we set off with. Blake looked over to me silently and nodded, and I calmed down slightly. She looked at me reassuringly, and I knew she was responsible enough to ensure their prompt arrival.<br>I glanced back at the fight once more and saw Jaune plastered to the wall, rolling my eyes as I walked out and towards Doctor Oobleck's lecture hall. I knew I'd arrive nearly half an hour early, but that was fine. It gave me time to acclimatize to the classroom environment once more before diving into learning even more about the history of Remnant.  
>As I sat down in a seat I felt appropriately close to properly absorb today's lesson, I noticed Ren and Nora silently sitting in one of the top rows. Nora was clung tightly to him, and he calmly had his hand on her thigh. It was hardly noticeable, but he was smiling. They were quite adorable, their glaringly different personalities somehow just had this chemistry I couldn't help but be a little jealous of. Romance was never my first priority, but I still entertained the notion. I wondered if I'd end up with someone seemingly opposite of me like the doting couple.<br>I must have been lost in my train of thought for a while, because the next thing I knew Ruby was sitting down next to me and smiling. _'Why is she so close to me?'_ I felt uncomfortable and scooted a few inches away, averting my eyes. "Weisssss are you excited or what?" Ruby tilted her head. "You've been spacing out for a little." She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, pouting slightly. "I was trying to talk to you earlier... what's on your mind?"  
>I shook my head, remembering my silly jealousy of how happy Ren and Nora seemed, and awkwardly smiled at Ruby, scratching the back of my head. "Just... excited for my first day of class. Maybe I dozed? I don't know..." I wasn't sure why I was uncomfortable telling her what was really on my mind, but it was no big deal. It was only a half-lie.<br>The other students filed into the room, some looking like zombies from the lack of sleep they were clearly experiencing. I had no sympathy for them; it was their own fault for not resting properly before the semester started. Doctor Oobleck zoomed behind them, his ever-present thermos in hand, and looked over the students, sweeping his gaze across the room whilst taking a long, slurpy sip.  
>"Goooooood morning, everyone! How was your summer? That's grand. Today's lesson will be on the history of Dust and the different classifications of techniques, attacks, and technology that come from the various types of crystals and powders of Dust that we encounter." He spoke so quickly, it seemed he didn't need to breathe, instead sipping at his mugs between sentences. I looked over at Blake and Yang, and noticed Yang was resting her hand on the side of her head and peeking up at Blake's bow any time Belladonna was looking away. <em>'That's... almost cute.'<em>  
>I found myself envious of Blake, but not over Yang's ever-so-obvious affections. I wished someone would notice me in that way. Romance may not have been my priority, but sometimes I did get lonely, and there certainly were a lot of reminders of my singularity lately. Perhaps I had put myself on too much of a pedestal. With a sigh, I turned back to Oobleck.<p>

"… and level two ranked attacks are commonly used to kill mid-sized Grimm. I believe a very experienced user of this rank of Dust based attack is none other than our Dust Heiress, Weiss Schnee." Oobleck sipped from his thermos again, nodding in my direction. I didn't really feel the need to pay attention to this lecture; this was a subject I was certain I knew more about than even the esteemed doctor. He gestured for me to come down in front of the class for some reason. I was suddenly nervous he'd noticed my spacing out from before and was going to make an example of me, and I bumped into Ruby walking past her. This frustrated me, as it made me seem off balance, and lacking in elegance. I shot her a glare and whispered "You're such a dunce." Narrowing my eyes as I walked past, and smiling to myself when she could no longer see. It had become a guilty pleasure of mine to watch her pout when I insulted her.

Oobleck was still looking up at me, cocking an eyebrow at the twisted display of affection that nobody but I could possibly be aware was to be taken as such. As I approached the bottom of the lecture hall, he shot around to the end of the staircase I was using to reach him. "Ms. Schnee, can you show us all one of your Dust attacks? I think it would be a good hands-on experience for your less educated peers." He sipped even more of his coffee and with an audible whoosh was standing behind his desk. I made a mental note to ask him if his semblance was speed like Ruby's, and exhaled as I reached the bottom of the staircase.

I turned and faced my classmates, holding Myrtenaster up with my left hand, and rotating the chamber to a wind element vial. It seemed to me to be the most natural choice to minimize the damage done by what I was about to do. I swung my blade, activating its chamber and firing a gust of wind through the center of the classroom, up the staircase I had been using moments prior. This had the simultaneous effect of startling any of the dozing classmates of mine, and blowing Blake's bow off of her head.

What happened next was the sort of thing you hear about in cartoons, as Blake turned cartoonishly red with blush at her exposed Faunus attributes, and Yang's eyes glazed over, lost in the wonderland of kitty ears I'm sure she was frolicking in within her own mind. Ruby was the first to act, using her semblance to grab the bow out of midair, and handing it back to the young adult Faunus. Blake nodded in appreciation, returning it to her head as swiftly as I'd ever seen anyone's hands move. The red still on her face, only a few of the classmates even took notice of what had transpired. The ones who had, for the most part, already knew about this detail of my teammate's heritage, and it really wasn't as big a deal to anyone else as it was to Blake and Yang. The former because she was still under the impression she needed to hide her heritage to fit in at a school that accepts students from all walks of life, and the latter because of her obvious crush on the former and her odd yet understandable fixation on the second pair of ears Blake managed to keep secret from even her teammates the first few months of our tenure at Beacon.

I returned to my seat, satisfied I'd not only shown off a bit of my skills with my family's product, but also that I'd caused what was sure to be a subject of discussion between Yang and Blake once the class was over. As I sat back down, Ruby poked my thigh, which caused me to stiffen up and look over at her with only my eyes.

"Yes?" I asked silently through gritted teeth. I wasn't angry, but I didn't want Oobleck to catch me talking to a classmate either.

"That was really cool, Weiss. I know I've seen it before, but I never really told you how cool I think it is that you use Dust so well." Ruby nodded and smiled. She was always so earnestly kind, even when I was truly terrible to her at times. I let a smile slip softly and nodded back.

"Maybe we can see what it does with your semblance sometime. Would you like that?" I promised. Her eyes lit up as if I had just promised the dolt cookies.

Before I knew it, Oobleck was complaining that class was over and making promises of his own that the lecture would be finished next week. I knew it wasn't true, at this point. He always forgot where he had left off. As we filed out, he called to us that our first mission as second year students would be that Friday, and I made a mental note to train Ruby with Dust before then so she could use it on her first mission if she had any natural inclination towards it.

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><p><em>I struggle writing chapters after very action-ey ones have been written. I tried to go for a more interpersonal feel here, instead of what's going on I wanted to focus on how Weiss felt about the things going on and cause a bit of inter-character development. The pace will be picking up after this chapter, technically 24 hours haven't even passed since the prologue began. The next chapter should take place a few days later.<em>


	7. Monty

_With the recent death of Monty Oum, the creator of RWBY, some of the content I had planned on sharing with you guys is now in rather poor taste. That said, I'm going to be on a hiatus from this site for a while. Monty was an inspiration to me, and he wouldn't want anyone to lose sight of their goals over him. I'll be back around after a while, in all likeliness, but I need to revisit my storyboard to make it a bit less depressing._


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